{"id":1019735,"date":"2026-07-09T09:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/?p=1019735"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:14:21","slug":"small-time-drug-pushers-ride-mule-accounts-as-kochi-police-tighten-the-leash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/2026\/07\/09\/small-time-drug-pushers-ride-mule-accounts-as-kochi-police-tighten-the-leash\/","title":{"rendered":"Small-time drug pushers ride mule accounts as Kochi police tighten the leash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KOCHI: Street-level drug peddlers in Kochi and other parts of the district are increasingly adopting mule bank accounts \u2014 a tactic once largely associated with cyber fraudsters and major narcotics syndicates \u2014 as police intensify their financial investigations into drug cases. <\/p>\n<p>Investigators told TNIE the shift \u2014 where accused allegedly route online payments through the bank accounts of friends, acquaintances and trusted associates \u2014 has become evident following several recent arrests. Police say the modus operandi gathered pace after investigators began routinely scrutinising bank transactions and digital-payment and call-detail records of those arrested in narcotics cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KOCHI: Street-level drug peddlers in Kochi and other parts of the district are increasingly adopting mule bank accounts \u2014 a tactic once largely associated with cyber fraudsters and major narcotics syndicates \u2014 as police intensify their financial investigations into drug cases. Investigators told TNIE the shift \u2014 where accused allegedly route online payments through the bank accounts of friends, acquaintances and trusted associates \u2014 has become evident following several recent arrests. Police say the modus operandi gathered pace after investigators began routinely scrutinising bank transactions and digital-payment and call-detail records of those arrested in narcotics cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1019735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-2-the-new-indian-express","category-newspapers","category-the-new-indian-express"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1019735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1019736,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019735\/revisions\/1019736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1019735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1019735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1019735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}